Discworld Casting Call

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been browsing back through my Discworld books lately, and a couple characters see to be easy to cast were the books ever be made into a movie. (Not that I think they particularly should be, but there you go.)

Nanny Ogg: Angela Lansbury

Granny Weatherwax: Betty White (maybe, I’m not 100% on this one)

Leonard da Quirm: Christopher Lloyd (more Doc Brown from Back To The Future than Rev. Jim from Taxi, but not much)

C.M.O.T. Dibbler: Steve Buscemi (but then who’s Nobby Nobbs?)

Capt. Vimes: James Garner (only a young James Garner, so maybe Mel Gibson? Dunno)

Corporal Carrot: Brendon Frasier

Sergent Colon: M. Emmett Walsh

Lord Vetineri: Alan Rickman

Rincewind: Topher Grace

…or not. I was just thinking.
-Rue.

2 
Hmmmmm... not quite.... earthy enough.  Maybe Betty White from "Lake Placid"? 

Yikes - I don't know WHO I would cast here. 

Perfect! Tho I think an equal mix of Rev. Jim & Doc Brown would do nicely. 

Sigh - you have a point - can we get a CG version of Marty Feldman for Nobby?  

Mel's a possibility.... will still have to think on this one. 

Another spot-on suggestion!

Not familiar with this actor - gonna have to go with another CG actor - John Banner (aka Sergeant Shultz) 

Oh yeah! 

Hrmmm.... I always thought of Rincewind as rather older... but you've got me thinking....
3

How about Stephanie Cole as Granny Weatherwax? (She was Diana in Waiting for God)

And Magrat . . how about Jane Horrocks?

4

Death - James Earl Jones, maybe

5

She was the voice of Magrat in the cartoon version of Wyrd Sisters.

6

Death should be voiced by John Cleese. It would be hard to imagine anyone else as Death.

7

Vanessa Redgrave as Granny Weatherwax.
Lynn Redgrave as Nanny Ogg. Maybe Liz Taylor if she could hold herself together, unlikely.
Angua looks like Robin Tunney or Dina Meyer in my head.
I would say Paul Gross for Carrot, but he’s getting a little old for the role.
As sad as I was when Spike Milligan died, it pained me he would never get to play Foul Ole Ron, he seemed perfect for it.
Paul Ruebens or Rowan Atkinson as Rincewind if we want to go a little older.
The guy who played Spud in Trainspotting for C.M.O.T. Dibbler.
Christopher Lee as the voice of Death, naturally.
Peter Fonda as Leonard da Quirm. Ever see him on Space Ghost C2C?
Terrence Stamp as Sam Vimes. Remember his bit in front of the crooked cop in The Limey? Maybe Dennis Quaid.
Richard Widmark or Lance Henriksen as Cohen The Barbarian.
Rickman as Vetinari would be fantastic. But if not him, Patrick MacGoohan is a good second choice.

I’ll be back, like it or not…

8

Granny Weatherwax: Anjelica Houston. Remember, she’s described as ‘handsome’.

I heartily 2nd Brendon Frasier for Carrot.

Harvey Keitel for Vimes. Or Tommy Lee Jones. I’ve always seen him as a dark, compact, hurt dog. Glenn Close as his wife (she needs to put on wiegt or a ‘fat-suit’, tho.)

Colon: John Goodman

I Like Buscemi for Rincewind and think Paul Reubens would make a great Dibbler.

Connery as Death.

Miss Susan: Sarah Michelle Gellar.

9

Third Brendan Fraser for Carrot! That was brilliant. The whole George of the Jungle innocence and courage–hopefully less dimwittedness, though: Carrot wasn’t dumb, he was just painfully honest and literal.

I like Christopher Lloyd but I wonder if he’d be good for Leonard or not–I picture someone with a thinner face, for some reason.

Danny de Vito for C.M.O.T. Dibbler?

Mel Gibson could do Vimes, except that Gibson has done a lot of hero movies, and Vimes, though a hero, isn’t your stereotypical one. He fits the picture I have in my head of Vimes, though, 'cept Vimes is shorter.

Alan Rickman…yeah, I can see that. Hmmm.

Very interesting!

10

Y’know, Alan Rickman as Vetinari is so perfect I can’t stand it.

What about the Dean? Patrick Stewart? I think he’d work out, hough his spin mihgt be a bit different. I could just see him walking around with a loaded crossbow and a staff. heh heh heh.

11

I was going to come back and change my Vimes to Rutger Hauer (but I didn’t feel he was quiteright.

I like widdershins’ Dennis Quaid. That would be about it.

His brother Randy (that would be Randy Quaid) could almost be Archchancelor Ridcully. Almost.

(Rutger Hauer could of course be the head werewolf in The Fifth Elephant.)

Patrick Stewart walking around with a loaded crossbow, though… heh, yeah.
-Rue.

12

Vimes is, of course, Bogart, so it is difficult to think of someone to play him. I saw Paul Darrow (Avon from Blake’s Seven for you British Dopers!) play him on stage, and he was very good.

Pratchett himself says Alan Rickman would be good as Vetinari (he thinks of Vetinari as being a cross between Rickman and Jeffrey Jones), and Craig Charles (Lister in Red Dwarf) has been promised the role of the Librarian if they ever do it! I would have thought that role would be CG though! If not, the lines will be really easy to remember…

I always think of Paul Gross when I picture Carrot, but Brendan Fraser would be good too.

I’m not sure about Topher Grace as Rincewind, but he would be good as Ponder Stibbons.

I like Tony Steedman as Leonard - he played Socrates in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Any ideas for Cohen The Barbarian?!

13

Read my earlier post. Cohen looks like Richard Widmark with long white hair in my head, but Widmark is in his 80s and apparently retired.

So Lance Henriksen seems like a good choice among current actors. Wirey, grizzled, skin like old leather, voice like a gravel road.

Either actor flashing that diamond-toothed grin would scare the shit out of opponents.

14

(I am having a hard time envisioning any non-british actors in these roles…)

Leonard da Quirm - Ian Holm (kinda stooped over, distracted, and talking too fast)

Vetinari - Rickman is predictable only because TP nominated him already --> I vote for Jeremy Irons

Nanny Ogg - Brenda Blethyn (Saving Grace, Little Voice)

Weatherwax - Helen Mirren made up older (although Angelica Huston is a darn good one too) (or maybe faye dunaway?) I still like Helen best…

Magrat - Jane Horrocks is a good choice (I’d forgotten about the video voices) although for some reason I just flashed on Janeane Garofalo (man, the voice coaching would be BAAAAD, like Keanu in Dracula)

Vimes - I thought of Keitel too, but how about Gary Oldman? or John Hannah?

Colon - (joking) Tom Arnold…actually I can’t shake the image of M Emmet Walsh from my head

Nobby - Rowan Atkinson ILMed to look small, a la Frodo Baggins

Carrot - don’t care what anyone says, PAUL GROSS IS FREAKIN’ PERFECT FOR THE ROLE!!! How can any one see the man in Due South and not immediately think, “Carrot!”

Ridcully - F. Murray Abraham (salieri)

Bursar - John Cleese

Death - probably animated some way, but definitely Christopher Lee’s voice. Come ON, people.

Librarian - this one is tough because he is my favorite character, but how can he not be animated? and what matters the voice? (oook, eek)

Rincewind - Stephen Fry

TwoFlower - Hugh Laurie

Cohen - Patrick Stewart

Susan -
Rachel Griffiths

Angua - Lucy Lawless

(all this has reminded me, I have a copy of Dark Side of the Sun which I have not read yet, gotta go bye!)

'vark

15

Tony Robinson looks like Nobby Nobbs (That’s Baldrick to any Blackadder fans)
plus he’s already done the discworld audio stuff
I’ll second that “Due South” (Paul Gross was it?) guy for Carrot - the similarities between the two are uncanny, as has been pointed out before…
I’d like Cleese for the Dean, actually - he can do repressed quite well.
Someone more robust for Ridcully, like Sir Ian in Gandalf mode
Eric Idle for Rincewind, if only because he is the voice. Otherwise whoever that other, gormless shrink is, in “Kiss Me Kate”
Clint Eastwood for Vimes? The whole dragon-as-Magnum scene in one of the books did that, I think.

16

Hmmmmmm… I could see Stewart playing Cohen, ya. Though I think I’d rather see him cameo as Mad Hamish. Cohen should be plyed by none other than… Arnold Schwarzaneggar. Yes yes, I know he doesn’t match up to the body type in the paintings. But I think he could do it and have a lot of fun in the role of a nutty old Barbarian!

17

Gwyneth Paltrow for Magrat - she has that drippy blonde thing going for her. I always thought Jane Horrocks was a bit OTT in the role.
Chuck Norris for Vimes - grizzled, permanently fed up, looks like he’d be uncomfortable in an office job.
Has to be Brian Blessed for Ridicully.
Ian Richardson (main bad guy in Dark City) as Vetinari.
Sharon Gless already seems to be doing a toned-down if rainbow-strewn Nanny Ogg in Queer as Folk, or Judi Dench who would have a ball.

The Gaspode got me thinking about the Buffy cast - but rather than SMGellar, I think Emma Caulfield(Anya) has that deadpan, unimpressed-with-the-world quality which would be great for Susan. Helen Mirren as Granny? I won’t be able to see Granny as anyone else from now on. And anything that would involve Paul Gross in a short skirt and armour breastplate works for me…

18

Do they have to still be alive? If not Lady Sybyl Vimes is Hattie Jaques (or possibly Sylvia Simms)

And what are all these damned yanks doing in Discworld. Discworld is English Dammit! So using only British actors (Unless the plot call for otherwise):

Cohen the Barbarian: Warren Mitchell ( has advantage of being jewish)

CMOT Dibbler: Leonard Rossiter

Capt Vimes: Sweeny era John Thaw

Nobby Nobbs: Wilfred Bramble

The Patrician: Alan Rickman (THis is a shoo in)

Corporal CArrot: Ewan McGregor

Death: Body of DAve Prowse (Darth VAder’s body) Voice of Michael Gambon

Twoflower: bert Kwouk.

The Luggage: Ross Kemp (He’s wooden enough)

19

I thought of Wilfred Brambell too, but for Albert (Death’s assistant) not Nobby. I think he’d be too old to be Nobby.

And I’ve always visualised John Thaw as Vimes, somewhere between Regan and early Morse.

20

That’s perfect.

Shergar for death’s horse.

Jimmy Edwards for the Dean

Bernard Bresslaw for Sergeant Colon.